Photography Collection – Schloss Kummerow starts new season in May

The exhibitions will be ready on the intended opening date and, if necessary, opened to the public at a later date, should the incidence situation so dictate.

Special exhibition 2021: Sweet Home, Alone
23 May – 31 October 2021

Sibylle Bergemann, Christian Borchert, Andrea Grützner, Andreas Mühe, Henrike Naumann, Peter Piller

The exhibition Sweet Home, Alone, curated by Dr. Kristina Schrei, considers the home as a central subject and visual motif. The expression "home sweet home" seems initially a promise of happiness, which in aesthetics and matters of taste, however, can quickly transform into a narrow-minded feigned bliss. The flip side of private comfort sheltered from the world at large is isolation and distancing. Withdrawal into the domestic private sphere means staying away from public life and thus also potentially a rejection of political participation, and has historically been most often evident in times of political unrest.

The artists featured in the exhibition view the present-day society with an awareness of the past. Their works point to the ambivalent power of the familiar home, which seems to be regaining immeasurable relevance today.

In her photographic series, Sibylle Bergemann approaches the individual designs of living rooms in the prefabricated housing type "P2," a prestige project of the GDR. Christian Borchert’s group of "Family Portraits" depicts various families he visited in homes throughout the GDR, thereby showing a cross-section of its society. Peter Piller’s work Von Erde schöner consists of found archival material from the 1980s documenting West German homes and illustrating a middle-class reality. The aesthetic image compositions in Andrea Grützner’s work groups das Eck, untitled, and Erbgericht focus on formal qualities such as color and plasticity and highlight the role of taste preferences as markers of their time. In her installation DDR Noir, Henrike Naumann invites questions about the much-invoked GDR nostalgia as well as dreams and ideals of people before and after the fall of the Wall—and what has become of them today. Andreas Mühe’s work primarily recalls the darker parts of the East and West German past. In his portrait of Egon Krenz, for example, we see a major player of the GDR who now lives in the seclusion of his home; a historical political figure, who willingly or by force no longer has a place in public life.

About the Photography Collection – Schloss Kummerow

Since 2016, the Photography Collection – Schloss Kummerow at Lake Kummerow in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern has been far more than an insider tip for art connoisseurs. With more than 2,000 m² exhibition space, it is one of Germany’s leading private photography collections on permanent display. The rich medium of photography fuses beautifully with the carefully preserved and restored historical architecture of this baroque castle. Thus the collection is in dialogue with the intentionally preserved traces of the building’s past, which bear witness to the uses of previous generations and life in changing ideologies.

The castle complex, completed in 1730, consists of a three-storey main building with a characteristically high roof and two pavilions, connected to the main house. For centuries, this extraordinary building was the family seat of the von Maltzahn family. After the expropriation that followed the Second World War, it was used for various purposes, stood empty after the German reunification, and fell into rapid decay. In 2011, the Berlin art collector Torsten Kunert acquired the ensemble, which is classified as an architectural monument of national importance, with the intention of creating a publicly accessible cultural venue with his photography collection. 

Today, the two lower floors of the main building are reserved for the permanent exhibition of selected collection items, while the top floor houses an annually changing thematic exhibition. The cultural activities in Schloss Kummerow are complemented by artists’ exhibitions in one of the pavilions, a permanent exhibition of works by the sculptor Uwe Schloen, and musical events. Outdoors, a summer flower meadow on the grounds invites visitors to stroll from the castle down to Germany’s eighth largest lake.

The permanent presentation of the collection

Today the focus of the Photography Collection – Schloss Kummerow is on contemporary works produced since the turn of the millennium, including important works by Thomas Demand, Steve McCurry, Andreas Mühe, Wolfgang Tillmans and Sebastião Salgado. The collection’s foundation was established in the 1990s with historical vintage prints from the period post-1945. The photographs by renowned East German photographers, which document experiences in the former GDR, pre and post Reunifiatcation, also form an important part of the collection. 

The quantity of large-format works, which unfold their visual power in the baroque rooms, creates a lasting impression for the visitor. Because the Night (2012) by Richard Mosse with its more than five meter breadth, Michael Wesely’s six meter water-lily picture (Water Lilies of Giverny, 24.06.2014, 8:55 to 21:00, 2014), Werner Mahler’s extensive chronology of a high school class since 1977 (Abiturienten, 1977/78-2015) and Wolfgang Tillman’s Freischwimmer (2006) form the exhibition’s cornerstones.

Selected artists included in the collection

Marina Abramović, Nobuyoshi Araki, Thomas Bangsted, Fiona Banner, Vanessa Beecroft, Sibylle Bergemann, Ilse Bing, Viktoria Binschtok, Christian Borchert, Thorsten Brinkmann, Daniele Buetti, Winfried Bullinger, Harry Callahan, Jewgeni Chaldej, Martin Dammann, Thomas Demand, Arno Fischer, Maike Freess, Charles Fréger, Lee Friedlander, Andrea Galvani, Hein Gorny, Andreas Gursky, Harald Hauswald, Candida Höfer, Sabine Hornig, Teresa Hubbard/Alexander Birchler, Arno Jansen, Edmund Kesting, William Klein, Clemens Krauss, Bernd Lasdin, Herbert List, Niko Luoma, Ute Mahler, Werner Mahler, Charlotte March, Will McBride, Steve McCurry, Simon Menner, Richard Mosse, Andreas Mühe, Oskar Nerlinger, Shirin Neshat, Helmut Newton, Tatsumi Orimoto, Helga Paris, Richard Peter sen., Hans Praefke, Jorma Puranen, Lukas Pusch, Bettina Rheims, Evelyn Richter, Jens Rötzsch, Thomas Ruff, Sebastião Salgado, Adrian Sauer, SCHAUM, Max Scheler, Martin Schoeller, Sarah Schönfeld, Erasmus Schröter, Gundula Schulze Eldowy, Andres Serrano, Laurie Simmons, Marleen Sleeuwits, Doug & Mike Starn, Otto Steinert, Beat Streuli, Christer Strömholm, Jock Sturges, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Miroslav Tichý, Fritz Tiedemann/Arwed Messmer, Wolfgang Tillmans, Michail Trachman, Ulay, Andre van Uehm, Brigitte Waldach, Michael Wesely, Siegfried Wittenburg, Ulrich Wüst, Miwa Yanagi.

Photography Collection – Schloss Kummerow

Am Schloss 10, 17139 Kummerow www.schloss-kummerow.de
+49 39952 235180  post@schloss-kummerow.de
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Opening hours

May and June 2021: Saturday and Sunday 11 am – 5 pm
July to September 20201: Wednesday to Sunday 11 am – 5 pm
October 2020: Friday to Sunday 11 am – 5 pm
Public holidays during the season: 11 am – 5 pm

Admission

Collection and exhibitions: 10 €, concessions 5 € Groups (from 20 adults): 8 € Teenagers up to 18 years: 1 € Free admission for children up to 14 years
Visitors to the exhibition must comply with the applicable hygiene regulations. Registration and current information at www.schloss-kummerow.de